SECTION 6.3: THAT THING CALLED RCI (RESORT CONDOMINIUM INTERNATIONAL)

For almost everyone for the past few years, once signed up with the Privilege Club, you were automatically signed up with a service called RCI.

It is very likely no one took the time to explain what this is to you or how it really works.

Here it goes.

The PRIVILEGE CLUB membership you have grants you Member “benefits” only within the 20+ participating Bahia Principe resorts located in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico and Spain.

That PRIVILEGE CLUB membership offers you NO benefits outside of the Bahia Principe resorts.

That gap is filled-in by RCI.

RCI essentially serves as a middle-man bringing together owners of timeshares and vacation clubs worldwide so they can exchange their properties with one another.

This possibility of EXCHANGING is RCI’s primary service, and main benefit of use to you. It is NOT their only service, and there is a learning curve in how to use it and extract some kind of benefit from it.

In a nutshell, RCI requires that you call or write your timeshare or vacation club first and for you to request THEM to give RCI any number of your weeks. This is called a “deposit”. Once done, RCI will put this week at the disposition of other RCI clients. E.g., a client who is a member of Marriot Vacation Club and who is looking to use THEIR own RCI membership will see a week available to use at Bahia Principe ONLY AFTER you (or any other member of Privilege Club) has deposited their week.

Understanding the above is why although there technically IS a monetary benefit with RCI, availability is extremely hard to come for the actual on-demand properties you might want to go.

What this means is this — RCI DOES offer you a fixed rate for you to make a reservation through their exchange program. This depends on where you live. It is practically GUARANTEED you will save money when comparing the price of the exchange (e.g., it is or used to be £ 169.00 for Privilege Club members in the UK for a one-week stay through RCI exchanging). This, of course, can be a great deal, depending on the regular-guest rates of where you will stay.

The WHOLE problem is availability, and all-inclusive rates.

So, as we said, you need to start an Exchange reservation by making a “deposit” of your Privilege Club weeks with RCI. Your Privilege Club week will be given a score by RCI, depending on how desirable it is to other RCI members. This is scored exclusively with RCI, and depends entirely on the SEASON you signed up for with Privilege Club.

Their “Gold” (lowest of 3 possible) season will earn you an RCI score of around 7 points per week. Their “Platinum” (middle of 3 possible) will earn you an RCI score of around 15 points per week. Their “Diamond” (highest of 3 possible) will earn you a score of around 23 weeks per week. This is variable, and once again, completely dependent on RCI’s own appreciation.

So the first issue you will run into is that, most likely, as the great majority do, you have a Gold program. You have this because it was the lowest priced option offered at the end of the sales presentation, and you were explained RCI has no season. This is true. No one bothered to explain however that once you deposited, your Gold program would be, essentially, worthless for the purpose of Exchanging.

The majority of desirable destinations (major European cities, US, Disney destination, etc.) will require FAR MORE than the points your Privilege Club can give you. These can require you to trade 50+ points, BEFORE you can book that destination under Exchange and THEN pay the weekly fee per room (e.g., the £ 169.00 required to UK members).

As a Privilege Club member, contrary to the promise of “easier” vacations with them or RCI, you WILL most likely be spending WEEKS logging in daily to find a place you can stay in for your destination and dates of travel. Your are VERY likely NOT going to find the actual destination you wish to go to become available — the Privilege Club reservations staff will tell you directly that this is not the way to use RCI, and YOU have to adjust your plans to whatever comes up as available, for whatever dates show up.

The above also makes clear the hidden cost of using RCI. Even if you DID find a place in the location and dates you wish to travel to, you are paying more than the “fixed fee” makes evident. For example, again, say you traveled from the UK and you are paying £ 169.00 per week deposited. You STILL have to factor in HOW MUCH YOU PAID for that Privilege Club contracted week in the first place.

E.g., say you signed up for a 10-week program at their regular cost (at the time of our research) of US$ 6,200.00 in total. That means that EACH of those 10 weeks IS COSTING YOU A TOTAL US$ 620.00.

So, say you wanted to go to California, and you found by some miracle a property only requiring 14 points for you to book under Exchanges. Further, let’s assume that, as most people do, you have a Gold program.

This means that in order to book that vacation, you are going to need to DEPOSIT 2 OF YOUR 10 WEEKS WITH RCI, and IN ADDITION, pay the Exchange fee of £ 169.00 too. Those 2 weeks cost you US$ 620.00 each, so my friend, you are not just paying the £ 169.00 — you are also giving up US$ 1,240.00 ON TOP of your booking.

This is IF EVER you find availability for the place you want to, in the dates you can travel (unlikely). High-demand destinations RARELY become available, and if they do, they almost instantly are nabbed up by other Members with time on their hands to be looking at RCI DAILY.